I'll Pretend For You
by NERC
Summary: What if it wasn't Lily and James who pushed Harry aside in the 'Wong Boy Who Lived' story line. ONE SHOT


**AN:** **Written for round 11 of the Quidditch League Competition**

 **Prompts: Typical HP Trope (Wrong BWL) and story must start and end with the same word.**

 _ **IMPORTANT NOTE: The entire 'Marauder' generation graduated in 1975 instead of 1978 for the timeline to work.***_

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

 **Dedicating this one to Emmeebee for her amazing work at fixing all my mistakes.**

* * *

 _Harry Potter had always known he was different. Different; not a freak like his aunt and uncle tried to tell him, but different. He knew his parents had been like him. He could remember only the barest traces of them, but he knew that they were like him. He hoped and hoped that one day they would show up and take him away, but they never did._

* * *

NOVEMBER 1st 1981, HOGWARTS, HOSPITAL WING

Lily Potter woke up to the white walls of the Hogwarts hospital wing. She sat up, trying to remember how she had gotten here.

"What happened?" she muttered to herself.

Slowly, the events of the previous night started to come back. The knock at the door, James' panicked cry, her yelling at Ethan to take Harry upstairs. Then… then nothing. She swept her eyes frantically around the hospital wing, only calming down when she saw two more occupied beds. She eased herself up carefully, considering the fact that she might still be injured, and walked down to the beds.

The first bed held James. He had scars all over him, and cuts that were obviously still healing, but he was breathing. Beside him lay Ethan, her six-year-old son who she had entrusted with her youngest. The thought made her freeze. Where was Harry? He wasn't with James. He didn't have his own bed. Where was he? She started walking around the hospital wing, hoping to find her son somewhere. She was on the verge of tears when Dumbledore walked in.

"Headmaster, where is Harry? Have you seen Harry?"

Albus Dumbledore took a long look at the distressed woman in front of him. It was for the greater good, he decided, to tell her the story he had come up with. Adopting a grandfatherly expression on his face, he motioned for Lily to sit down.

"Lily, Harry didn't make it."

"No," she whispered. "No, no, no, NO!"

She started to sob hysterically.

James Potter woke to the sound of his wife crying and screaming. He went from completely unaware to fully alert in seconds. His Auror training kicking in, he tried to figure out what was wrong. Lily was there, he was there, Ethan was there, Harry was — not there. He slipped from his bed and wrapped Lily in his arms as she continued to weep into his chest. He tried his best to comfort her, praying his assumption was wrong. He raised an eyebrow at the Headmaster, who was sitting on the end of his bed. The small shake of the older wizard's head was all it took for James' world to crumble.

After a moment of only Lily's muffled cries filling the room, the headmaster started to speak.

"Voldemort is gone," he said.

James stared at him in wonder. "I – What – Pardon?" he stammered.

"Voldemort was defeated," Dumbledore repeated. "Ethan defeated him, somehow."

By this point, Lily had managed to calm herself down enough to listen, but James knew her mask of peacefulness would not last.

"Voldemort tried to kill him, but he survived. Lily, he survived the Killing Curse with nothing more than a scar."

Lily started to cry again.

"I will leave you now," the headmaster said, rising from the bed. "I am so very sorry."

Moments later, the young Ethan Potter woke up to find his mother crying in his father's arms.

"Mummy, what's wrong?" He looked around sleepily. "Where's Harry?"

Lily sobbed harder. James gestured for his son to come over to where they sat.

"Ethan," he started. "When the bad wizard came to our house, he hurt us." James took a deep breath. "But he sent Harry to Heaven."

The young boy did not fully understand, but he did know that it meant he was never going to see his baby brother again. He started crying into his mother's shirt. It was all his fault.

* * *

 _Harry Potter knew they weren't dead. He didn't know how he knew, but he was certain that his parents — and his brother — were out there somewhere._

* * *

JULY 24th 1991, HOGWARTS, HEADMASTER'S OFFICE

Albus Dumbledore was furious. The Dursleys had not succeeded in forcing the magic out of the child. He glared once more at the parchment that contained the source of his anger. The name 'Harry Potter' was written innocently on the class list for that year, and since the letters had already been sent out, there was nothing he could do to stop the brat from coming.

Despite what he had told everyone, he knew that it had not been Ethan Potter who had defeated Lord Voldemort. No, it had been little Harry. The prophecy he had heard told him that the boy who could defeat the Dark Lord would also bring about his own downfall. He couldn't allow that. Instead, he had scared the other child's head, telling everyone that it had been him who had saved them, and sent Harry Potter away to his magic-hating relatives in the hope that they would scare the boy's magic into submission.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang as his office door swung open, revealing two visibly irate Potters.

"Is this supposed to be a joke?" James snapped at the headmaster. "Do you think this is funny?" In his hand, he held a Hogwarts letter addressed to Harry.

"Ah, James, I was expecting that I would see you."

"No," Lily said. "It's not a joke. James, look."

Too late, Dumbledore realized that he had forgotten to close the book with the students' names in it.

"He's alive." Lily breathed, taking a moment to stare at the page. "My baby is alive."

As James Potter turned his gaze onto the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore felt his world coming apart. He couldn't remember a time when he had seen the man so mad.

"You do realize, Mr. Dumbledore, that you kidnapped a child?" James' voice was cold and quiet. "That taking a child, telling their family that they are dead - that is a crime." James paused once again.

"James, my boy —" Albus tried to interject.

"I am not your boy."

Albus sighed, realizing that these young people would never understand the necessity of his actions.

"Here is what is going to happen. You are going to tell us where our son is. Then you have until midnight to hand yourself over to the Ministry and admit to everything. You will consent to using Veritaserum at your trial. If you do not, I will find every single piece of gossip and fact about you. I will get it printed in the _Daily Prophet_ and it will destroy your reputation."

Albus Dumbledore looked at his former students; they would never forgive him. He strongly suspected that if it had been up to Lily, he would not have been given the chance to retain some of his image.

"Very well. I will leave for the Ministry now."

"Where is he?" Lily snapped.

Albus Dumbledore stared at her sadly. "Although I would suggest waiting until morning, he is at your sister's." He stepped into the Floo before she could decide that it was worth it to curse him.

* * *

JULY 24TH, 1991, GODRIC'S HOLLOW

By the time the Potters got home, it was well past eleven.

"ETHAN!" Lily yelled up the stairs.

"Coming, Mum!"

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Potter ran down the stairs, wondering what it was that his mother was calling him so late for.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked the moment he saw his parents' faces.

"It's Harry," Lily said.

The familiar sense of guilt filled him. Harry, his baby brother, the one he was supposed to have protected. His mum had trusted him, and he had failed her. It was his fault that his baby brother was dead. All his fault.

"He's alive," she continued.

Ethan froze. "What?" he asked, not daring to hope he had heard her correctly.

"Harry is alive, Ethan."

"He survived?"

"Yes."

Ethan collapsed into his mother's arms. Lily held him, glancing at him with worry when he started to shake.

"Ethan? Hon?"

"I didn't kill him. He's alive."

His parents stared at him in shock.

"Ethan, it was never your fault," James said firmly. He put his hands on his son's shoulders. "It was never your fault."

The young wizard let the tears he'd been holding back fall down his face. "I — I was supposed to get him out, to watch him."

James tightened his hold. "No, listen to me. It was never your fault. We never blamed you. Do you understand?"

Ethan nodded and proceeded to collapse onto the couch. After taking a few moments to calm down, he looked back at his parents. "When are we going to get him?"

"In the morning," Lily answered. "We figured we'd let him sleep tonight." She looked at the tired faces of her boys. "Something we should all do."

* * *

JULY 25TH, 1991, MINISTRY OF MAGIC

The Potters were swarmed the minute they arrived at the Ministry., It seemed like every single reporter wanted to get a picture of the Boy Who Lived. James and Lily quickly made their way through the crowd, trying to get away before anyone could pull Ethan aside. Unfortunately, they weren't that lucky.

"Mr. Potter, please, just a moment of your time?"

"Sorry, but no," Ethan answered.

"I will only take a moment," the reporter insisted, proceeding to grab onto the boy's arm and pull him into a side room. Ethan stared at the older wizard for a moment before speaking.

"I said no." He turned and left the room, meeting his parents at the door.

"Was there a problem?" his dad asked, glaring the reporter.

"No, sir," the reporter replied, his voice shaking.

Ethan muffled a laugh at the man's fear of his father and followed his parents up to whatever office it was that they had been told to go to. When they got there, Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, was waiting for them.

"Try not to kill him," she said as they approached.

"Who?" James questioned.

"Dumbledore."

The older Potter growled out, "What did he do now?"

"Brought Harry here."

"HE WHAT?" Lily exploded.

"Yes, I sent him — Dumbledore, that is — to the holding cells. Harry is in my office." She gestured to a door behind her. "Feel free to go in when you're ready."

Lily only hesitated for a moment before opening the door. A mess of black hair flew towards her.

"I knew you'd come back. I knew you would," the boy muttered.

"Oh, Harry." Lily sighed, crouching down to wrap him in a hug. "We're right here. We aren't leaving you ever again."

Amelia Bones stood back as she watched the family reunite. She didn't want to disturb them, but the Aurors who had been questioning Dumbledore had brought her information that she need to make the Potters aware of.

Stepping into the room, she cleared her throat quietly, immediately attracting the attention of the other four occupants.

"I hate to interrupt, but I feel that this is important information to share. Please have a seat." She waited until they had all sat down, Harry snuggling into his mother's lap.

"The questioning of Albus Dumbledore has brought some interesting facts to light." She took a deep breath before continuing. "The most important to you is that Ethan is not the Boy Who Lived. Harry is."

She gave them a minute to let the information sink in. "It is up to you, but I would suggest that you don't tell anyone of this new discovery until Harry is comfortable in our world."

Lily and James nodded.

"Lily, James, there is some paperwork we need to take care of."

The two adults looked at each other and then at Ethan, who nodded slowly. Lily placed Harry on the couch, leaning against his brother before following James and Amelia out the door and into the other room.

"Hey, my name is Ethan. I'm your big brother. You're going to be safe now; I will take care of you." He ruffled the younger boy's hair. "I'll even pretend to be the all-powerful Boy Who Lived for you." He winked.

This got the desired reaction as Harry laughed, hugging his brother for the first time in a long time. "My name is Harry."

* * *

 **AN: Hope you liked it. Reviews are always nice.**


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